Original subtitles

Love is like a butterfly, soft and gentle as a fly. The

multicolored moods of love are like its saddened wings.

Love makes your heart seem strange inside. It flutters like soft winds in

flight. Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing.

My God, all these gadgets.

Whatever happened to the gentle things of life?

Once we used to wake up to the sound of sparrows.

A man could gather his mind and body together and go to the bathroom ready to

face his shower.

Now he's catapulted into the day like toast coming out of a faulty toaster.

Doesn't worry her.

She has the ability to adapt.

If they started a bus service to Mars, she'd be first aboard.

Oh,

you're up.

Yes.

Must we have all these things blurting at us? I start my every day in a state

deep shock.

Oh, it's my morning off.

Hey, Mum, my jeans ready.

It's your mother's morning off.

But Adam and I are splitting early this morning. I can't find my jeans.

Then you'll have to look a little harder and split a little later.

Oh, great.

Hey,

Dad, about my allowance. I hate to bother you, but... About your will.

Right. Well, according to this, you owe me five pounds.

And I owe you two, which means you owe me three.

Couldn't you work that out in your head?

Oh, yeah.

It's just more fun this way.

Well, I don't actually have my wallet on me. I've just got out of bed.

It's OK. It'll do later. Thank you.

Sort of ten minutes from now.

I'm sorry. I didn't know you were in there.

Which did I say?

Oh, my God.

They are finished.

There is a lock on the door, you know.

Well, it's no hassle. I've nothing to hide.

Well, I'm fortunate for you.

Oh,

pull

yourself together, you silly cow.

Underpants, ma 'am.

At least ten pairs in your drawer, Adam. Yeah, but they've all got things

written on them. I want a plain pair.

Why?

I'm in a refined mood.

I don't see the point of refined underpants unless the rest of you is

Or are you planning on surprising someone?

Oh, no breakfast, no underpants.

I'm late.

Not late. It's only five to eight.

For the time I've made my breakfast, I'll be late.

You see my cream shirt?

I can see it from here.

I didn't mean that one. The one with the pocket.

In the washing machine.

Along with Russell's jeans and Adam's refined underpants.

All right, I'll wear the blue one.

The one I hate.

All I ask is for one morning off occasionally. Of course, of course. And

it. Go to sleep.

Why is it I'm always made to feel guilty?

What would you all do if I died?

There's no need to be dramatic.

Most women would have said, what would you do if I was ill? But no, you have to

die.

I mean, I don't ask for much.

I don't expect to actually sleep.

I don't even expect to lie down.

In fact, I'd be quite willing to stand up and direct the three of you to your

wardrobes, cupboards and drawers.

As long as I didn't have to leave my bed.

All right, all right. I'll see that you're not disturbed again.

We shall all three creep out of the house and you and your teas made and

clock radio can spend the rest of the day in total harmony.

Ben? Yes?

I'm cooking something special tonight.

Good.

Very good.

Chicken fricassee, French beans and carrot a la creme. Very ambitious, yes.

If it turns out wrong, I'll just carry it.

I'll give the bathroom a special do this morning. Thank you.

I swear they're getting that bath with their bloody wellies on.

Bye. Bye.

chicken you got for today.

The cat's got it on.

Oh, good.

I'll take them, shall I?

Thank you, Ruby.

I don't think it matters where my Venus is today, Ruby.

You're a bit depressed, aren't you?

It said you would be.

I'm going to embark on a new relationship.

I could do with a bit of anky -panky.

Do you know something, Ruby?

If I had my life again, I'd like to have a little girl.

Eggshell face.

Blonde ponytail, little filly knickers.

And when she grows up, someone to talk to.

An extension of myself.

I don't think the world's a proper place for daughters.

Too full of sons.

Not all boys have been brought up respectable like yours, you know.

Yes,

darling?

Six tomatoes and 45 oranges, please.

Oh,

sorry.

I mean six oranges and a pound of your 45p tomatoes.

She wants six oranges and a pound of her 45p tomatoes. Right, do it her way.

A pound and ten, please.

All right,

one grapefruit.

Put something on your mind, love.

Mr. Dunn, is he there, please?

Oh, hello, Thomas.

Hello, sir.

Have you started the new job yet?

Not yet, sir.

Well, cancel it. I need you. I've crashed my car.

Was it the whiskey, sir?

No, I wasn't drunk.

I was in a hurry, that's all.

Anybody hurt? Oh, no, I didn't hurt anybody.

But there's not a lot of hope for the telephone kiosk.

Kelp Street.

They've made it into a one -way.

Well, I didn't bloody know, did I?

Everybody else did, it seems. I had one hell of a job avoiding them.

Tomorrow, I'm picking up my new car.

Very well.

Oh, thank you, Thomas.

Oh, insurance certificate, insurance certificate.

Hello, Ben. Nice to see you. Gordon, my dear friend.

Unusual for you, drinking in the lunch hour?

I think that can be said of both.

I just thought it'd be a nice idea.

Oh, so it is.

What are you having?

Um, the same.

Another whiskey, please.

So,

how is everything?

Fine.

Just fine. And you? Oh, marvellous, marvellous.

The, um, boys, what are they doing now?

One's doing nothing.

The other, in a bid to make a profound mark on the world, has taken up long

-distance lorry driving.

They don't exactly tread the road we carve for them, do they?

My daughter and her electrician are still living in a leaky boat on some

polluted canal.

Love, I believe they call it. Yes, I don't know what she sees in him.

He has all the endearing qualities of superglue.

Thanks.

Cheers.

Cheers.

I've just been to see my bank manager.

Oh, my God.

Strange breed, bank managers, the assassins of hope.

I tell all my heart patients to keep away from them.

Bank managers and mistresses.

It's all this new equipment they keep designing. A man feels he has to keep up

with them.

£2 ,000 it cost me for a new X -ray machine.

It's the scientists. They're going stark raving mad.

The digital life we live.

Calculators.

Answering machines.

A microwave.

It's a silicone chip.

What next?

Well, there'll be no need for you and me.

People will just consult their little computers and then take their own teeth

and tonsils out.

How's Jen?

Oh, I think she's well.

She's there when I go out in the morning and equally there when I get back at

night.

Funny how women chatter.

Yes.

Through breakfast, through lunch, through dinner. Right through the news.

They probably go on after we're asleep. Who knows?

It has a paralysing effect eventually.

Ria talks me through a disastrous meal the way an air traffic controller talks

jumbo jet through a thunderstorm.

Have you told her about your finances?

No. She'd probably come up with some horrendous female logic.

Yes. Sell the house, she'd say.

So, if she had her way, we'd sell the house and get out of debt.

Then she'd notice we had nowhere to live.

So we'd buy another house and get back into debt.

You see, all it takes is thinking out, she'd say.

I expect you'll be visiting my surgery soon.

Oh.

Well, the odd sleeping tablet, perhaps.

You realise I don't approve?

Yeah, yeah. Just something to take the pain out of my overdraft.

I'll do that.

You're not going to suggest we make love, are you? I'm absolutely no good

amongst leaves and twigs.

You are.

You are suggesting it.

I could be swept away on some passionate frenzy, only to look up and find a

couple of farmers in the entire garden, cruising about at no altitude.

Oh, my God.

It's better than sitting at home and worrying.

Worrying?

What have you got to worry about?

Oh, things.

What clothes to wear?

What lipstick?

How to keep my husband alive and well and fulfilled.

You do all that rather too well.

That's no good. I'm not an outdoor man.

With a lock on it.

Your sons haven't inherited your inhibitions.

They'd do it anywhere.

I was like that myself once.

Even tried a railway embankment.

Things got out of control and we slid into a coal tip.

No, but you grow out of all that.

Someone always comes along and frightens you out of it.

Thank God Russell's had his warning.

Right, I'm just going to get my butterfly net and I'll race you to the

14 minutes and 20 seconds, sir.

Twice as long as usual.

We haven't done the tree.

What time did they say we could collect the new car, Thomas?

Three o 'clock, sir.

It's 22.

I feel naked without a car.

You should have only been without it for a day, sir.

Nakedness is something one can only endure for a short time.

It becomes unnatural after that.

I'll try the tree and back.

Start the watch.

The damn thing moved further away.

Oh,

I'm knackered, Thomas.

It would appear that this was an appropriate moment to mention the

What whiskey?

The bottle you consumed since yesterday, sir.

Well, I need a drink now and then, Thomas.

You need your liver all the time, sir.

It does seem to me such a pity, sir, that a successful businessman...

Who seems to be able to bring about anything.

I can't bring about her, can I? She's married.

I wish you could consider the possibility of somebody else, sir.

As they say, just around the corner. Look, I've been round all the corners.

All I've got is bloody dizzy.

It's not worth it, sir.

Not for a woman.

And how important is your woman, Thomas?

My woman, sir?

It's rather like a fruit machine.

The more money you put in, the more disappointment you get out.

But even with the disappointment, it's better with her, isn't it?

All I was saying was, sir, that drinking won't get rid of the problem.

No, it won't get rid of the problem.

But it gets rid of my ability to think about the problem.

Look, son, when I took you on, you seemed like a good, reliable chap.

The first thing you did was shed your load of timber all over the motorway.

Now you've moved on to better things and you're trying to get through a nine

-foot bridge with a 12 -foot lorry.

I can't afford you, son.

On your way. And take your cars with you.

Oh, hell.

Oh, boy.

Have I got a problem?

But you can't have the baby all on your own. It's what I want.

But I've asked you to marry me. I don't want to be married. I've told you.

God, I make revolting cocoa.

Hi, Mum.

You're up late.

Yes, I couldn't go to sleep.

Oh.

I was, uh... I was just thirsty.

How are you?

What?

Well, just that...

Since you started your job, I hardly see you, so how are you?

Fine. I'm fine.

Oh, boy.

All or nothing milk.

And Russell?

How is Russell?

Fine.

We're both fine.

Instead of going with you in your lorry, wouldn't it be better if he got himself

a job?

One will come along.

I suppose.

A job doesn't just come along, Adam.

You can't open the door and call one in like the cat.

You have to go out and look for it.

You should be prepared. Anything could happen.

Life is always waiting, Adam, to throw her little hand grenades.

Look at Jeannie.

She wasn't a hand grenade. She was the full nuclear bit.

Well, you gave Russell something to think about.

All the same.

Could easily happen again.

No, not again.

Russ knows what causes it now.

Nobody going to sleep in this house tonight, then?

I can't sleep. Adam's thirsty.

What about you?

Thanks.

Isn't it nice?

Sitting here, mother and sons.

Talking.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

They say that midnight is the bewitching hour. The hour when people loosen up

and confide.

Well, 20 minutes to go.

Do you know, sometimes, when I'm here in this house and you're all out, I get

the urge to bash everything up.

Not an ordinary bash, but an enthusiastic, hysterical, maniac -type

Yeah?

That's really interesting.

I wouldn't tell everybody that because it's a secret, you see.

But sometimes secrets are depressing.

I feel really good now I've told you that.

I guess we'll have to stay in a bit more, sunshine.

I like squashing things, too.

I like pressing the soil down round a plant.

Or treading on sand.

Oh, and I like to make a pile of sandwiches and then lean on it till

squelches.

I bet you never knew that about me, did you?

No.

But thinking about his sandwiches, it makes sense.

It's funny, isn't it? We all sit here in this house.

A united family.

Yet each one of us, an island.

Your father never talks about his inner mind.

He's far too proud, and I...

Well, I don't like to bother you with my problems.

And you?

Well, you don't seem to have any.

Do you?

None.

Oh?

I guess I'm ready to hit the pillow, then.

Yeah, me too.

It's been real nice talking to you, Mum.

All those funny little things that go on inside your head.

Yeah, we must confide more often.

Night, then.

Night.

Ben? Are you awake?

I've got things on my mind.

Remember I told you?

There's Adam. He looks pale.

Not the usual pale, but the extra pale.

He hasn't said anything yet, but I know there's something wrong.

And Russell.

I played a tape in his room.

It's like stumbling upon Watergate.

And there's something else.

But I can't tell you about that.

I will one day, though, when it's all stopped.

Ben, are you listening to me?

I went to bed this morning with the milkman.

And the postman.

Tomorrow I'm going to try out the gas man.

And then I'm going to sell my story to the newspapers.

Ben, why is it that everyone else in this house has problems?

We sat in that dining room worrying about the entire universe.

lie there, not worrying about anything.

Thank you.